Ringing in December

I'm getting really excited to start on my December Daily tomorrow. I assembled the album this morning and LOVED using a lot of my new supplies and all those Christmas supplies I could never figure what to do with. Bought the photo overlays to help with some journaling squares - I love them and may try designing my own someday.
Here are the before pictures:

Go, Speed Racer, Go!

We're doing the Speed Racer thing for Agustin's birthday Wednesday. We bought the DVD but it was hard (for me) to follow. There was some very strange anime stuff going on, but the graphics were cool. Granted, I didn't know any of the back story, and I was trying to watch while the kids played and screamed and half-watched while asking me a million questions (why does he have eyes, Mommy? Who is the guy in the car? Why isn't the car red and blue?, etc.), so that might explain why I had a hard time with it, too.

On a slight Japanese twist to the whole Speed Racer theme, we will have a giraffe piñata. No monkey, but I'm sure the writers could fit the giraffe into the plot somehow.

random thoughts

On my mind today:

• I miss Halloween. The pumpkins are getting rotten but if I carve them now they'll rot even sooner. Ah, the dilemma.
• I'm sort of bummed out that I convinced Andres that October was too soon for Disney World - the McMahons are there as of tomorrow and it would have been fun to meet up.
• I love the word alas. Alas, I don't get to use it often enough. And when I do - alas - people look at me as if I were nuts.
• My camera has no batteries. Or, rather, it has batteries that work for one day and then stop working again. I change the batteries and the same thing happens. I can't find any rechargeable batteries here. It's a bit disappointing.
• Little boys coming up out of nowhere and giving me the best mommy hug. It just doesn't get any better.
• The pregnant bug is going around - I know of like 5 people who are all due early June. Weird.
• I need to find somewhere that sells good photo paper. I want to print out some photos and they just aren't working - I think it's the paper but no one around here seems to be able to tell me anything.
• I think geocaching would be so cool. Doesn't anyone down here feel the same? Maybe they do it in Guayaquil. They scrapbook there you know.

Tomorrow we'll be going to get our driver's licenses renewed. We had to get a picture taken for the paperwork for tomorrow and the lady surprised us with a composite picture of Andres and I in front of a cheesy sunset picture. Andres is glowing like God, and I am unsmiling, floating rapturously through the sky. So hilarious. If I ever want to laugh, I'll think of that moment where I am telling the lady, "The picture is just for our driver's license," as she photoshops the death out of Andres's shirt.

She was so proud of her work. And truthfully, it is one of maybe two pictures we have of the two of us together.

The kids liked the pics and stuck them up on the bulletin board.

to market, to market

Went to the market this morning for Halloween pumpkins. We found quite a few, of all different sizes and colors.



Got some fresh veggies and fruit (ovos and strawberries - mango season is just around the corner so will be on the lookout for those).



Andres needed to stop for some hornado.

Came back and had the in-laws over for lunch. The kids weren't so well behaved...they're sleeping now and I am SO enjoying the quiet.

School supplies

Forgot to put up the pictures of Agustin's school supply list. It took us about a week to get it all together.



Had to get Kas in there. Stickering up my couch of course...

It's that time of year once again...

Come the end of August, something special happens in the stationary and paper stores of Ecuador. It is the dreaded SCHOOL SUPPLY SHOPPING, and it is back! You may remember my experience school supply shopping last year - what started out as a fun, exciting moment of my eldest being old enough to go to school, turned into a hair-pulling, four-hour long ordeal. Aside from the general lack of product in the stores ("Thin wire? No sorry, we're out. Nope, don't have shiny foam either. No, I've never heard of PLAID fabric paint. We don't carry small rolling pins, and we ran out of markers and colored pencils and modeling clay yesterday"), the fact that the list itself reads like Morse code (1oo hjs papel bond tamaño INEN 75 gr.), and the lines that go to the back of the store, there is an additional problem: everything you buy wrong (brand, size, color) IS SENT BACK! Needless to say, school supply shopping is a small science here, and so this year I came prepared: I brought a translator (my Spanish-speaking and Ecuadorian-raised husband), and I got the list the week before classes started.

Despite my preparation and general prudence, there were still large crowds. My translator was indispensable, and although he does not enjoy this type of shopping at all, I will never again go on my own. Me: "Boxed pencil sharpener?" (He grabs it off the shelf and puts it in the cart. ), "Cheese eraser?" ("I saw those over here..." as he goes to get it), "2 HB pencils? 1 imitation rapidografo, black? 3 large sheets of "comet" paper?" (Hubby scurrying from aisle to aisle, grabbing normal things like fine-lined pens and pencils and tissue paper off the shelves.)

We were in and out within an hour, although we only had half of the items. Since then I have been briefed on what to look for ("brilliant foam sheets" = foam with glitter in it, "thin rope" = thin corded ribbon", etc.) so that over the next few days I can be on the lookout for specialty items, hopefully available in some of the smaller stationary stores. I am still struggling with a "non-traditional story book" (Pinocchio? Aladdin? The Three Bears? What is considered "traditional" here?) and finding a junior-sized rolling pin. Oh, and reusable paper towels - do such things even exist?

And the ever elusive PLAID fabric paint - which I have seen in the U.S. but never here.

So, the hunt will continue and come Monday, will we be prepared? Come back to see!

Note: You may remember from last year that cotton balls were a popular item. It seems that teachers get into fads, since they all ask for the same thing. This year there are no cotton balls on our list, but we have been hard pressed to find the glittered foam sheets and yellow folders. Who says teachers don't succumb to peer pressure?

today's plans

Daddy has to work all day today, so I'm home alone with the kids. We are planning a nature walk, maybe we'll do some arts and crafts, we'll listen to internet radio, and then hopefully the kids will be all worn out and take a looooooong nap.

thankful today for...

It can be frustrating to live in another country - deal with a culture and language different from yours on a daily basis, the little inconveniences and quirks that can get under your skin at a moment's notice. But tonight, coming home from the gym, as I circled the mall to go up the hill, I noticed three stores with little kiddie corners - a place where the kids can go sit, play, watch a video, color, etc. while their parents shop. And I realized that these are in quite a few stores - we've even used them.

And I felt happy and grateful to live in a country that so values children and families.

Upcoming work

Wow. I've got a lot of work coming up in the next month. My vacation to MN will be well deserved by the time we get on the plane.

Due to the dissolution of the university's language department, we will be taking on all of the language requirements for graduating students. This means that we will be acquiring quite a few new teachers and LOTS of new students. We have been going through the hiring process for the new teachers, deciding which teachers from the old language department we can use, since not all of them will be hired. Some need language lessons to improve their level of English, and that's what I'll be doing the whole month of July. So, I have to prepare the course and then from there teach it. Yikes! While not impossible, of course, it is going to be really tiring teaching a course on top of all the other responsibilities I have.

Then we come back from the US and begin the TEFL course, which is also very tiring. Really fun but so so so much work that I get literally burnt out for a month or more once it is finished, especially with a big class, which I'm sure, looking at the registration numbers, we will have this time. In September/October it looks like I'll also be starting a course at UCG in Guayaquil. This will be fun, last time that course was such a great experience.

In other news, I finished a review for a new language book series with Cambridge University Press. It was such an amazing, cool opportunity, and I got paid for it, too! There are some days I love my job and position and all the opportunities that are open to me for working here.

gross story #1: think daddy day care and DON'T READ if you are 1) not a mom or 2) have a weak stomach

(Note: No pictures in this one - you'll see why!)

Agustin has been potty trained since he was three years old, almost to the day. This greatly stressed me at first, since he was my first kid, and I imagined he would be in diapers as he walked down the aisle. It seemed like he'd never even have the desire to be potty trained. But, lo and behold, time works it's magic (as always) and one day, not long after his third birthday, he just decided it was time. No one told him, it was his decision, and from that day forward he stopped wearing diapers and not once EVER had an accident. Very cool. But he still needs help wiping after number 2, and has never said anything about wanting to be big enough to do it himself.

Until the other day.

He was in the bathroom, and calls me. "Mommy, I'm done doing poopies!"

So I go in, expecting to go through our little routine of cleaning him up and washing hands and all.
(Here's where the daddy day care part comes in. you know that scene, right?)

It was all over. Legs, feet, socks, toilet seat, hands, shirt, floor. Chunky and creamy (sorry for the image!) Since having kids, very little can really gross me out. Projectile vomit, dirt, garbage, sour milk, moldy food under the couch. But this was really gross. It took me days to get over it.
Turns out he had decided he is old enough to wipe himself. But he couldn't reach the toilet paper? Didn't know how much to use? Thought hands would be quicker? I don't know what he was thinking, and may never know, but we had a little talk and decided that he could learn to clean himself off, but with the help of mommy and daddy, who would teach him.

Andres took pity on my ordeal and the next day went in when Agustin called that he was finished.

Suddenly I hear a low scream coming from the direction of the bathroom.

Yes, again. Only this time he DID use toilet paper, but for some reason didn't put it in the toilet, just threw it on the floor. Lots of it.

So, something we are working on.

Yet another of the neverending stories of parenthood.

Isn't it great? Yes, it really, truly is.

cute story #1

Nicolas wakes up every morning like at 5 :30 am. Much too early for a weekend, and I'm the one he usually calls. So Sunday morning he wakes up, calls me, I go in there and try to get him to sleep a bit more, or read some books or something so that I can sleep more. But no, he starts telling me we have to get up - it's morning. So I get up, put him in front of Discovery kids, and decide to do a little early morning Internet window shopping. Suddenly, there is this little guy pulling on my pajamas.

Him: (in broken Spanglish): "I want to go downstairs."
Me: (still a bit groggy): "Why?"
Him: "I want to go downstairs to play with the bears."
Me: "What bears?"
Him: (getting impatient): "I want to go... downstairs...play with BEARS."
Me: (no answer, silently mulling over what bears he could be referring to)
Him: "DOWNSTAIRS...BEARS. Let's go mommy." and he starts pulling on my clothes again.

So, I get up and start walking downstairs with him, thinking, OK, he can play with his bear toys and I'll find something else to do.

Halfway down the stairs he stops. I turn around to see what's got his attention, and he is looking at me from the corner of his eye, a slick grin on his mouth.

Him: "The GUMMY bears."

Note: Andres had bought a small baggie of gummy bears at a specialty candy store the day before, and the kids were (obviously) really excited about it.

And no, I did not give him the gummy bears at 5:45 in the morning. He ate a soft-boiled egg and some toast and then got his gummy bears :) Note to all mommies: dangle gummy bears like a carrot on a stick to get your finicky kids to eat their breakfast.

a rare moment of peace in my day...

Both kids are taking a nap, so I decided to take a moment to post after a long absence. New York was great, and I'll come back to that a little later this week, hopefully post a few pictures. The convention was awesome too, although I got sick that first day and missed the whole first afternoon, including about 5 sessions I really wanted to go to. But regardless, the TESOL convention is definitely one of the best things I can do as a teacher/teacher trainer and it rejuvenates and motivates me like little else in the field...

A quick overview of our week:

1. Got home Sunday night to a distraught mother-in-law - turns out she had pneumonia while she was watching the kids! She went to the doctor on Monday and I stayed home from work, she's now got the right medicine and feeling better, but I definitely feel terrible about how bad she felt while we were gone.
2. Nicolas came down with a fever on Monday. We couldn't keep it down, so took him to the doctor on Tuesday and it turns out he has tonsillitis! What a nasty thing - after rotavirus it is the worst (so far) we have had to deal with. He cried constantly, had a fever that kept him delirious for almost 3 days, looked like we was wasting away (probably lost 2-3 lbs.) because he wouldn't eat or drink anything, and finally started feeling a little better yesterday afternoon. Quite a terrible week, just waiting for Agustin to come down with it now, hoping it won't happen, but even Andres and I feel like we have sore throats, so maybe we'll all get it. Not sure how contagious it is.
3. Talked to my grandma today and wished my uncle a happy birthday and it felt really good to make that connection with home after a week in NY being able to talk to my sister and mom whenever they got the time to call (and could locate us in the hotel room!). So great to think that we'll be there with them in a few short months. Will be our first time to the state fair in two years and we're really looking forward to it!

Guess I thought I had more to say. Will be back again with pictures and thoughts from our trip. In the meantime, here are just a few of the fun things we enjoyed while there:

• saw videotaping of Confessions of a Shopaholic
• waited outside of the David Letterman show with the paparrazi for a glimpse of an unknown star - never saw anyone though, haha
• shopping at Toys R Us, although our feet were screaming for our heads ("Off with their heads" at every painful step.)
• Times Square (you really don't have to say anything else here)
• Starbucks in the Trump Tower

And some things we'll be sure to get on the itinerary the next time we visit (hopefully the summer):

• Central Park
• a Broadway Show
• more Fifth Avenue (can't get enough)
• maybe the wax museum and Ripley's - just for the heck of it, wouldn't the kids enjoy that?
• A trip Uptown and to the East Side - we really didn't get east of Fifth Avenue.

On a side note, some guilty pleasures:

• coveting almost every scrapbooking kit out there (I want the CK April one!!!!)
• drinking raspberry coffee
• listening to country on internet radio - yes! Who would have ever thought? certainly not myself!

Jueves Santo: The Last Supper

Today, jueves santo, is the big day for Ecuadorians. For some reason, however, I am at work. We will be here until later today conducting teachers' meetings, getting ready for the next cycle, which starts on Monday. Of course, it is strange because Easter is so early this year. It's been hard to remember that we are already upon that day. (And I, the lone Easter bunny this side of the equator, have NOTHING to put in the baskets! EEK!)

Today is the day that Jesus and the disciples ate the Last Supper, so Ecuadorians celebrate by gorging themselves with fanesca. This soup is pretty complex, and aside from the dried salt cod (making it the vegetarian choice - imagine us Protestants eating HAM on Easter Sunday! My goodness, haha), it also contains all of the spring harvest items found in this part of the world: pumpkin, squash, peas, corn, fava beans, red and white beans, peanut sauce, even hominy and lentils or rice in some families! After you eat all you can of fanesca (for me that means a half a bowl - that soup is rich!), you eat some more. Then, you follow it down with a dollop of thick mashed potatoes on a leaf of lettuce, and rice pudding for dessert. A lot like Thanksgiving in the U.S. When you think your stomach can handle no more - you have another bowl of fanesca and a jug of Mylanta and call it a day. I don't think we'll be making fanesca this year - it gets quite involved and has a lot of ingredients, but I will contribute something to Sunday's lunch - I'll make deviled eggs with those eggs we colored last week. I hope they'll be good - last year they all went rotten on me and we had to throw the whole lot away.

We have tomorrow off and I plan to just lounge around the house. We are all trying to get over a cold, and the weather has been so rainy that the highways to the coast are pretty treacherous (can you say landslides?). So no beach for us this year. Anyway, the beach for semana santa (Holy Week) is usually so packed it hurts to go. No, we'll stay home watching DiscoveryKids and whatnot and eating deviled eggs.

In other news, last night at about 1 am we were rudely awaken by a quick tremor. It only lasted about 2 seconds, but was the type that, had I been standing, I probably would have been thrown to the ground. The earth totally shifted, it didn't even shake, and while it did that about 2-3 times quickly in a row, we stayed up for another hour wondering when the next ones would come. Luckily, there was nothing else, and the news this morning reports no one hurt and no property damage. After the huge earthquake in Peru, however, I am more nervous than ever. This was only a 4.4 - not much, but the first one I've felt since moving to our new house (over 2 years ago).

Happy St. Patty's Day!

I guess I should send out a very Happy St. Patty's Day to all of those with Irish descent out there. I forgot completely and am decked out in pink instead of green, but when I get home tonight I'll have myself a nice beer (no Guinness around here though) and wear some green to bed. I do have Irish blood, by the way, so by default so do my kids, and I am probably doing them a disservice by not hamming it up a bit more. Of course, what fun is St. Pat's Day until you're 21 and old enough to get some green beer? So, until then, my kids will probably never appreciate the nuances of this so-very-Irish holiday...

Pic from www.jupiterimages.com.

Getting ready for Easter

Agustin helped me dye eggs this morning. He got a little rough and ended up squishing a couple, but he was so excited. He was very particular in choosing the colors we used - first blue (of course), then turquoise, then orange and peach and then green (the prettiest in my opinion), and then he opted for a violet pink.














Little brother was with daddy doing errands, but got real excited when he saw them too. Amazingly, Nicolas was very gentle with the eggs, holding them so carefully. I'm surprised he didn't chuck it at the wall or someone's face, though. I think he'll grow up to play basketball the way he likes to throw things around.

Here they are choosing their favorites.
They don't want us to eat them though - too pretty.

Yes! It's the weekend!

Say cheese!
Getting ready for bed. Agustin didn't go to school today because he's got a bit of a cold. Nicolas is quite crabby and ready for bed. After the kids fall asleep I plan to scrapbook, blog/journal, check out the 2peas web site and just basically loaf around. Thank God for Fridays!

On the Merits of the Marshmallow

What is it about marshmallows? they seem to have an unexplicable lure for the members in my family, and father and sons together will literally drool for a small bowl of mini marshmallows. Every time my family comes to visit they are expected asked to bring a bag.

After school snack? Marshmallows. Hungry for supper? Need a marshmallow fix first. Why are the kids bouncing off the walls? Why, marshmallows, of course!!!!

In other news, yes, I forgot to upload the picture yesterday. We got back from playgroup rather late and by the time supper was made and kids eaten and in pajamas, there was no time for anything else. Agustin didn't have time for homework, either, and I'm sure the teacher won't be happy with us today. His homework is too long, some days, and I just can't make him do it when he's sleepy or crabby. Thirty minutes of copying a huge sheet of the letter Ss is too much for a four-year-old, especially when he's been in school all morning! I am just against this whole excessive homework idea, and I can see that this is going to be an uphill battle for me as the kids go through school.

Weather? Cold. Not as cold as MN, but downright too chilly not to have heat in the houses and at work. Add a co-worker who refuses to close the window, and you've got one ex-Minnesotan with frozen fingers having to type everything twice because her fingers aren't working right.

I suppose minus 5 is worse, but still: WHERE IS THE SUN?!

My baby turns 2!!!!

Wow, it is hard to believe but today Nicolas turns two years old! We have a party planned for this Saturday, and will also celebrate Grandma Shushu's birthday that day. Hopefully a few kids will come, and some family, and it will just be a restful day where everyone can enjoy each others' company. The weather hasn't been so pleasant lately, so we'll be happy if we just get no rain or drizzle (I'm sure the kids would like to play outside a bit) and, if we're lucky, maybe we'll even get a peek of sunshine.


We got our toddler a Prep n Serve kitchen, something we've wanted to do since Christmas but couldn't get the time to go and pick it up, and then they ran out of them at the store and it was too late for a Christmas present. This time we bought it early (Monday) to be sure to have it in time for the party, and the kids have been cooking nonstop since. Of course, now we basically just break up fights over who can cook and who can wash dishes (wish this were real life and not make-believe!) and of course, who the lucky duck that gets to play with the frying pan and hamburger bun will be. When they finally come to an agreement, however, I can think of nothing more pleasant than sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and watching my two growing boys playing peacefully together. It usually lasts about half the cup, so I've learned not to fill the coffee to the brim.

We have playgroup scheduled for today, so I'm thinking about bringing a cake so we can sing Happy Birthday, and then once we get home I plan to upload a picture of our birthday boy, taken early this morning on his special day. More to come!



Edited 3/14: Here he is on his birthday morning!

All Soul's Day

We spent a nice All Soul's Day holiday in Ambato, which they call Finados there (come to think of it, I have no idea why or even what finados is!). The kids LOVE going to Ambato, and although we planned on returning Saturday (luckily we didn't, as the annual Mama Negra event in Latacunga was going on full force and it would have meant MAJOR traffic jam), Agustin begged us to let him "please stay one more day". As he usually gets his way (well, spoiling my kids with something like spending one more day on vacation is fun!), we agreed to stay.

He was reluctant on Sunday to go home, but we managed to get him back to Quito, where, two minutes after he walked into the house, he turned around and said, "OK, let's go back to Ambato now!"

Nicolas, on the other hand, had a hard time sleeping there. He wanted his bed back home, I guess, and would make frightened faces at the ceiling, as if he were seeing ghosts or something. He had to be put to bed in his grandma's arms, and once asleep didn't have any problems. Last night you could see the relief in his eyes when we put him into his own bed again. While Agustin has never had a problem sleeping in strange beds or bonding with people easily, Nicolas is a different story. We have decided to go back to Ambato the weekend before Christmas, to pick up my father in law before he goes on vacation, and therefore have an excuse to get Nicolas used to sleeping outside of the house.

Happily, I got a lot of reading done over the long weekend. I finished two books, The Sleeping Doll by Jeffrey Deaver
(not a big fan, not sure why I continue reading his stuff, I guess it is just escape reading and something I can get through quickly while kids are screaming and pinching and hitting each other, and not have to worry about losing my place),








and The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant,
a book I had wanted to read forever and which completely surprised me in the end.










I also started Naked by David Sedaris, and, as expected, it had me snorting (laughing snorting!) as I read.

Everyone was looking at me like I was nuts, but that guy is just hilarious! Too much!